Anadolu News Agency, Turkey
Jan 2 2009

President says Turkey to do "everything to eradicate terrorism"

Ankara, 2 January: The Turkish president said on Thursday [1 January]
that Turkey would do everything to eradicate terrorism.

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul said that Turkey would do everything
in its power to eradicate the terrorist organization PKK [Kurdistan
Workers’ Party].

"Turkey will go on its democratic moves in a determined way and at the
same time it will do everything in its power to eradicate the
terrorist organization," Gul told the private ATV channel.

Gul said that there was not even a single reason that could justify
terrorism and it was impossible to tolerate terrorism.

The president said that all citizens were equal and had same rights in
Turkey under the Constitution.

Gul said that the reason of rise in terrorist attacks from time to
time in Turkey was that the terrorist organization "was getting use of
the neighbouring country".

The terrorist organization had the opportunity to use the neighbouring
country as a logistic base due to the authority vacuum in that
country, Gul said.

"What is important is to eradicate terrorism or to minimize it if you
cannot eradicate it, and to test every means for this goal," the
president said.

Gul said that the most important thing was to isolate the terrorist
organization and that could be done by democracy, and underlined
importance of cooperation in fight against terrorism.

"Considering that they (terrorists) are in Iraq, Turkey will naturally
improve its relations with Iraq and make demands," he said.

Gul said that as a big country, Turkey had no complex and it could
talk with everyone.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said that recent Internet campaign
launched by Turkish intellectuals to apologize for the incidents of
1915 would negatively affect relations between Turkey and Armenia.

"People do not ask government’s permission while doing something in
this country. But considering its consequences, I do not believe that
recent debates would have contributions," Gul told private ATV channel
in an interview.

Gul said talks between the two countries were under way.

"Sometimes you work silent, sometimes you carry out works before the
public eye. But I can say that works are under way regarding this
matter," he said.

"Who could have thought that Turkey and Armenia would play in the same
group in the World Cup qualifiers? China and United States started
relations during a table tennis tournament," Gul said.

Asked about future of Turkish-US relations after the new Washington
administration, Gul said relations would become stronger.

"I believe that it will be a very good era and I think we will work
together very well," he said.